Slipped Away
by Masquerade of Starlight
Summary: After Scorpius has denied her once again, Rose is fed up. She decides to move on. Deep down, she'll never forget how she feels. On the surface, she goes after other guys. As they start their 7th year, what will happen with their love...and their world?
1. Waking Up is a Pain, Isn't It?

Author's Note: This is the revised version of the first chapter.

© to JK Rowling for the world of Harry Potter and all it's inhabitants.

© to me for the story idea and certain characters.

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Chapter One: Waking Up is a Pain, Isn't It?

The smell of old and, in some cases, ancient paper filled Rose's nose. Those weren't the only smells though. Rose breathed in the ink and new parchment as well. Rose was busily working on a foot and a half essay on the effects runes have on spells and some extra rune translations for her Ancient Runes professor, Professor Knight. Normally, she would be out on the Quidditch pitch, hitting the bludger between herself and Chloe Longbottom, her best friend. They made a good duo on and off the field. Many, especially Rose's family, equated them to Rose's Uncle George and late Uncle Fred when they had played.

She looked over to where Al was sitting. He for some reason had not tried out for the Quidditch team nor had no desire. Rose figured it was because enough members of her family had taken over the Quidditch teams that it would seem unfair. He was awesome on a broom nonetheless but even more amazing with a wand. The boy had loosened his gold and scarlet tie and was working on some advanced charms from a book Rose's mum had given him.

Rose went back to working on her own homework. As she lifted her quill again, her stomach rumbled, warning her that it wasn't happy. It never seemed to be happy with her. She always was busy with Quidditch practice and homework and other things, that she didn't have a set eating schedule. Today she had of course had breakfast, the most important meal of the day as her grandma liked to remind her. Lunch had been kind of skimpy but it had been enough to sustain her until now. But dinner she had skipped. The majority of her evening had been spent in the library with a little bit in her dorm room catching a quick nap. Al had come up a little while ago, smelling of food. He was always taking care of her as he was the one person that held their little group from falling apart. Rose knew that he had brought something up for her.

She looked over at him again and he was looking at her. Al raised his eyebrow and pointed to his schoolbag. Rose nodded and Al rolled his eyes and laughed. He leaned down out of sight for a minute and then came back up with a wrapped stack of something. He passed it over to her silently and went back to practicing charms. She opened the food up and saw that it was a stack of toast with some fruit wrapped up on top. Rose smiled and signed 'thank you' in the secret language they had made back (and were still adding to) when they were six. He signed 'you're welcome' and flipped quite a few pages to another section. As she started gnawing on some strawberries, Rose continued working on her essay. Everything was done on it except for the conclusion. All of the ink was dry so she didn't have to worry about smudging. Rose lifted her quill again and set to work finishing her essay.

Fifteen minutes later, Rose was done with the essay. She set to rolling it up. From behind her, Rose heard squelching footsteps and shook her head. It was a good thing Pince no longer was working here. She would've been down on them faster than they could say...well just about anything. As they came closer, Rose smelled the all too familiar smells of rain, sweat, and broom polish. It caused a pang in her heart to know that she had skipped practice, but her grades came first and she had had a lot of homework.

She giggled a little as the two sat down: Chloe right next to her and Scorpius right next to Al and across from Rose. They were both soaking wet and looked very tired. Chloe's dark brown hair looked black as it hung down like wavy spaghetti noodles. She was just tucking her hair behind her ears and was rubbing her eyes, getting what looked like forgotten mud out of the corner of her eyes. Chloe had changed out of her Quidditch robes obviously, but just walking through the grounds to the castle in the still pouring rain had completely soaked her jeans and t-shirt.

Scorpius was the same. His blonde hair on the other hand was now more of a dirty blonde. He was soaked through to the bone as well. His longish hair was flat and messy. He was wearing a sweater and a nice pair of khakis with some nice dress shoes. He was looking down into his lap and wasn't looking up at anyone.

"I'm so sorry I skipped, you guys. Do you want me to dry you off?"

"Oh, would you? Please? I'm really cold…and wet, obviously. And are you—"

"Chloe, I will. And yes, I am finished with the Ancient Runes essay. Which you should've had done most of it already."

"I know, I know. Can you please dry us? Like…now, maybe? And it's no big deal that you skipped. We know what your mum is like."

"All right, all right. Calm down just a little bit and stop talking so I can concentrate."

Rose pulled out her wand and waved it towards them saying the proper incantation in her head. They immediately became dry and stopped raining on the carpet. Chloe's hair was back to its illuminating wavy dark brown. Scorpius' hair was back to being dry and straight, but curly on the ends. His parents weren't exactly happy about his fashion choices, but they were considerably nicer to him about it than his paternal grandparents.

Well, Chloe, being herself, started talking a mile a minute and thanking Rose. Rose rolled her eyes and just shook her head. She loved her best friend, but sometimes, she just felt like smacking her across the face to just make her be quiet for a few minutes. But every time she voiced her wish, Al and sometimes Scorpius told her she shouldn't do so. There were nicer ways to get her to shut up.

While Chloe kept on talking, giving Rose a play-by-play of practice, Rose pulled her rune translations out and Scorpius still hung his head. Rose paused after translating the first set. She told her three friends that they could have some of the food and grabbed a piece of toast. That was when Scorpius' stature finally caught her attention. Instantly, a wave of worry overtook her. Only when he was depressed or something was truly affecting his emotional state was he like this, even when he had been lovesick for that one girl back in second year.

Rose stared at Scorpius for a few minutes. She ignored her homework. Rose desperately wanted him to feel her eyes looking at him so that he would look back. But he didn't. Chloe noticed something odd was going on and yawned. Al looked up and noticed her yawn.

"Would you like an escort, Miss Longbottom?" He already knew the answer and was picking up his things, his green eyes shining.

"Yes, please." Chloe smiled a sweet smile and stood up. They linked arms and headed off to do some more flirting and to walk back to their common room. Rose wondered when they would just say they were together already. It was so obvious and they obviously both knew the other liked them. She rolled her eyes and turned back to Scorpius.

In awkward silence, they sat there. Scorpius never looked up, never even glanced around. Rose gulped afraid of what might've happened. His family could've disowned him, although that didn't seem likely since his dad was apparently a hundred times better than his dad and what he had been at school, according to her dad. So Rose threw out that option as a million other possibilities spawned in her head. Wondering what she could do, she did the only thing she could think to do. Provoke him into talking by packing up her things and preparing to leave the library.

Rose picked up her books that weren't able to fit in her bag and stood up. Quickly, he looked up and grabbed her arm from across the table.

"Please don't go," he quietly pleaded.

Scorpius stood and walked around the end of the table, still holding Rose's arm. When he was just within a few inches of her, she dropped her books back onto the table. Looking into his eyes, Rose saw a look she had never seen before and Rose knew every single look that ever had brightened his stormy gray eyes. And his eyes were certainly alight at the moment.

He grabbed her arms and turned her to face him, straight on. Rose was a little taken back by this abruptness. For once, Scorpius was entirely silent as he looked at her. Normally, he would be telling her not to do something or reproaching her for getting to heated and almost causing a fight. But now, it was something different. He just stared at her.

A little creeped out by his stare, Rose asked, "What's going on, Scorpius?"

"I had a long talk with Chloe."

"What about?"

He answered her with another stare. He searched her face up and down with his eyes. Rose was mesmerized by them. She knew if she didn't look away, she'd end up kissing him. She didn't want that. Not unless he did too. There had been so much tension over the past who knew how many months and it was peaking right now. At least it was for Rose.

Finally, right as Rose was about to break away, he leaned in close.

"I'm sorry I made you wait."

Before she had the chance to ask, Scorpius kissed her. Not a peck on the cheek or anything wimpy like that. He was pressing his lips on hers. It was exhilarating. She lost all train of thought that she had. The questions vanished and the only thing burning in her mind was how she loved this feeling.

He broke away, leaving her breathless. She wanted more. Why did he have to leave her wanting more? A kiss. She had finally gotten a kiss. After waiting for so long. After so many nights of staring at the stars on sleepless nights after a moment together that would fill her brain for hours.

Rose leaned in, looking into his eyes. He smiled softly. Rose took the initiative and kissed him again.

"ROSE!" Someone was banging on her door, shouting loudly.

It startled her out of her dream and into the real world. Another day at the Burrow with her monstrous family was about to begin.


	2. The Outpour of the Heart and Soul

Author's Note: This is a revised version of Chapter two.

* * *

Chapter Two: The Outpour of the Heart and Soul

Hearing nothing but Victoire's shout and fist banging on the oak door caused Rose to groggily feel for her wand on the left bedside table. She was still on a bit of a high from her dream but she was quickly crashing back to earth. After finally grabbing hold of the dark enchanted wood, Rose uncovered her head and pointed her wand towards her alarm clock and muttered the illumination charm. A small beam of light blared out in the dark, making the pale face of the clock show in the darkness. Five –thirty was the time. Rose's eyes narrowed. She rose out of bed and stalked over to the door. Opening it slowly, she put on her best Grandma Weasley face.

Tori, as Victoire was called by the family, jumped a little when she saw Rose's face. Not many could pull off the deathly glare of their matriarch. It also didn't help that Dominique, Tori's younger sister, had come out of her room with the same look, but hers was much worse. Dominique had a look that could rival Medusa's, if she had been an actual creature.

"Victoire Elizabeth Lupin, you interrupted my beauty sleep with your cacophony of shouts and knocking." Frankly, Rose was more amazed that Dominique came up with a sentence with as much word use as well as she could. Then again, she was a Ravenclaw.

With a mock curtsey, Victoire said, "My sincerest apologies, Your Highness. Next time I'll be sure to knock on your door, my dear Nicki."

Dominique's eyes became like a snake's as she backed up slowly into her room, watching her older sister. She hated her nickname. Dominique had always been the diva of the family. Tori stared right back at Dominique, giving her the same intense look until Dominique disappeared behind her door. Tori turned back to Rose. She whispered to Rose about some breakfast already being made downstairs and to come join her.

"Why?"

"Don't you want to go shopping for some spectacular dress robes for the party on Saturday?"

"I…I don't know."

"You don't know? Rose, you've always wanted to go to anything fancy since no one in our family takes us to any of the big events they go too. What's up with you?" Tori knocked her on the head. "Hello? Is Rose Weasley in there? You've been avoiding almost everyone since the beginning of summer. That's not like you."

"I've been doing homework. And I need quiet time every day. Even a loving family such as this one gets to be annoying the longer you spend time with them."

Tori gave her a hurt look. No one had ever said anything like that about the family, especially among them. "Rosie, what is up with you? You always tell me everything. And I know Aunt Hermione has told you to never forsake your family just for work."

"Yeah she has, but she understands why I'm holed up in my room. I've been reading NEWT help books as well as doing NEWT level homework. And don't ask what's going on with me. You wouldn't understand."

Rose turned and went to shut her door when Tori grabbed her arm.

"Understand what?"

"Never mind." Rose shook her head. "I don't want to go shopping or anything else. I just need to do my homework and I might go for a broom ride or a Quidditch scrimmage later."

"No lame excuses. You're going shopping, even if it isn't for a dress. You need out of this house. And I know you want to go to Scorpius' birthday ball on Saturday. "

Rose sighed. She knew if she didn't appease Tori, she'd never hear the end of it. Also she would possibly drag in a parental unit or two.

"Fine, I'll go shopping."

"Oh and your mum and Aunt Ginny wanted to come with. They haven't been shopping in a while. And since Uncle Ron couldn't make it, your mum also is going to approve of your dress robes." Tori chuckled.

Rose wasn't too happy about this little fact. If she was going to do any shopping, she'd rather do it with just Tori. Rose groaned and grabbed Victoire's arm and dragged her into her room. She sat Tori down on her bed. Rose decided it was time to tell someone about her thoughts and the real reason she had holed herself up in her room.

Digging through her desk, she looked for her journal. The past few days she had been pouring everything into the little navy blue book. Rose pulled the bookmark and opened the journal. She flipped back a few pages to where the confessions all started. She pointed to a spot and holding her finger there, Rose passed the small object of leather and paper bound together to Victoire, and said, "Read from there."

-----

Victoire looked up at Rose, her eyes sympathetic and understanding. After reading the journal entry, Rose had launched into the somewhat short explanation of her relationship with Scorpius. Well an explanation of the events that her little "stories" hadn't told. Rose just took her journal out of Victoire's outstretched hands and closed it with a finger holding the place of a page she wanted to read. She felt like it was the heaviest thing to carry, next to her heart, as she walked over to her desk with it. Blinking a tear away, Rose opened it, searching for the words that formed the short little blurb that had been birthed from a dream. It had been her last entry, dated the night before, shortly before she had had the library dream. Rose shuddered and read:

_Someone sat down next to the girl and a warm, slender hand wiggled its way into hers. The other hand turned her head and wiped her tears with the tips of its fingers. The girl, even though her body was facing the boy she loved, was looking at the floor. Letting go of her hand, he hugged her, letting her rest her head on his shoulder. They sat in that position for a while; the girl just crying into the boy's shoulder, whilst he sat still and just comforted her._

_Then the boy straightened and held the girl's upper arms and held her away at arms length. He looked into her eyes and had a longing look shining in his eyes. He drew in close to her, his face an inch away. She closed her eyes and felt his warm breath brushing her cheek. It was intoxicating. The sweet smell of jasmine and vanilla cologne breezed by her nose; she was lost in it._

_Warmth then touched her face and stayed there. The girl opened her eyes and saw directly into his gray eyes. He got close, closer than he had been. His lips were close to hers. _

_Out of the blue, the scent disappeared accompanied by a swish of a cloak. He was gone, a shoe disappearing around the corner. The girl stood quickly and ran to the corner, but the boy was no longer there. A new torrent of tears poured down over her face as she ran out the huge doors._

Rose choked back tears. How similar this was to what had happened just before leaving the Hogwarts Express at the beginning of the summer vacation. They had been so close and then he stood and walked out of the compartment.

She placed the journal back in the desk drawer and turned back to Victoire.

"So why is it exactly that you locked yourself away in your 'tower'?"

A tear escaped Rose's tear duct. Tori stood up and hugged her. Rose was glad for the hug. Her heart was a little lighter now that she told someone but not too light. She didn't really know herself.

"I don't truly know. I did some homework and read one page of that help book….But not much else except for write in that journal and think about him and everything else."

"Ah…don't think about it so much. The biggest mistakes a girl will ever make, when it comes to love, is over thinking and over analyzing. If he likes you and isn't coming out about it, he will…eventually. Teddy took forever to break open. He didn't want to admit that he liked someone two years younger than him. At least that was the case when we were at school. Once I became a seventh year though, he couldn't resist my one-eighth veela blood any longer. Hehe…." Tori smiled.

Rose smiled as well. Teddy was a stubborn kid. Uncle Harry said it was his parents coming out in him. Apparently they both had been very stubborn people. Tori had never told her that before though. About her and Teddy.

_Hmm…well it makes me feel a little bit better. I mean Teddy and Tori ended up married. I won't set my hopes so high though. I may be head over heels for Scorpius but I'm not stupid._ Rose mused to herself.

Rose was pulled out of her mind by Tori waving her hand in front of Rose's face.

"Hello? You there?"

"Yeah." Rose nodded and smiled. "Thanks for the advice, Tori. Let's go downstairs for breakfast."


	3. What a Busy Day

Author's note: Revised version of original third chapter.

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Chapter Three

The sun peeked over the top of the horizon line as Rose and Victoire came down the stairs. She was curious as to when Tori had actually gotten her up as they had talked for at least a good hour or so but decided against asking. Rose didn't truly want to know. They had to be quiet descending the creaky wooden flights. One wrong step and all of their cousins (and in some cases, possibly siblings) would be down on them. They also had to move into hallways sometimes and they had to tread extra carefully then. When they were on the last flight of stairs, they both started to hear the murmur from the adults who convened for early breakfast and sanity before work or before taking care of the huge family sleeping in the rooms above.

Sitting down at the table were Rose's dad, granddad, and Uncles Bill, Harry, and George. They were eating. The five men, excluding her granddad, were staying true to a man's belief in eating and talking, especially Rose's dad and he got a fine smack on the back of his head from her mother as he started exclaiming aloud about some Quidditch match that they were discussing. Standing in the kitchen, her grandmum and Aunts Audrey, Fleur, Ginny, and Angelina were all laughing while doing various tasks. Rose pulled down her pajama shirt down more and fixed her short ponytails. For some reason, Rose always felt like she had to look somewhat presentable in the morning. Her mother always said they didn't care, but Rose never listened. Victoire shook her head and walked past Rose. Tori went and sat down next to Uncle Bill and bade everyone good morning.

"Morning." She said as she inhaled the scent of her grandmum's cooking.

"How was your night, dear?" Her mum asked as she hugged Rose and kissed her forehead.

"Restful." That's all she said. It was far from the truth, but she wasn't about to admit that to all her family. How crazy would that be?

"Where are Teddy and Uncle Percy?"

Uncle Harry answered, "They both went off to work already. Teddy was going off to New York for some reason and-"

"Percy went into work early, because he always goes into the Ministry early on Wednesdays because that's the agreement we worked out." Aunt Audrey finished.

Rose laughed with the rest of the family and as she sat down and started filling her plate with different things (her grandmum always made a plethora of breakfast dishes to cater to the whole family's favorites and appetites), all those that had to get to work, stood and pulled on their summer cloaks. This had always baffled Rose. They were already wearing nice, warm robes. Why did they need more protection from the cloudy, and often times, rainy England summer days? But as she looked outside, it baffled Rose even more. It looked like it was perfectly sunny, and would reach up to about twenty-one degrees Celsius. Although Rose didn't ask, because then she thought of the one thing central to the world she lived in and of course it still looked odd to go into the magical world with muggle clothes on when you were an adult.

Rose's dad came over and kissed the top of her head.

"Have a good day at work, Dad."

"Thanks, dear."

He walked out the kitchen door, of which the top part was open, and disapparated. Slowly, over the next ten minutes, goodbyes were made. It was the same routine, day after day, year after year.

Every summer and the second half of the Christmas holiday, the entire Weasley-Potter family would have the same morning routine. Rose didn't know why but after the last grandchild was born, Grandmum and Grandad Weasley decided that every school holiday, the whole entire family would come and live together at the Burrow. So all the women got together one day and expanded the house to fit everyone in it. Everyone got their own room. The women had figured there would be enough angst in the house when the kids became teenagers without making them room together.

When Uncle George was finally done kissing his wife goodbye (after Grandma Weasley was done clearing her throat for the umpteenth time) and left, Rose and Victoire started laughing. Normally, they weren't up this early to see the ridiculous goodbyes. Rose had just heard about them from her mom.

As Rose drank some of her pumpkin juice, her mum and all of the others except Aunt Fleur came into the dining room and started eating. Victoire shook her head and got up and went in to help her mum. Hermione and Ginny started to eat and were talking to each other in hushed tones. Rose took this as a cue to get up and join Victoire in the kitchen, who was washing dishes by hand.

"Why are you doing it by hand?"

"Because I feel like it."

"Why don't you get those out of the way and make the younger ones wash their dishes by hand? Plus I would not want to wash the dishes dirtied by the men who just left." Rose added as she looked at the dishes on the counter.

Her aunt laughed and said, "I agree with Rose."

Aunt Fleur's English was just about perfect now. She still had her accent but it wasn't as pronounced. As Rose waved her wand so her own dishes would get cleaned magically, Tori chose to use a choice French swear word. Jumping in alarm, Rose turned around to see what was wrong. It turned out that Tori had cut herself on a knife. No one panicked though, and Tori calmly pulled out her wand and performed a nonverbal spell. Instantly her skin repaired itself. It was a good thing that Tori was a healer in training.

----

Sunlight. A beautiful thing. Rose loved to fly under the sun and feel the warmth on her face. What she didn't like was the wind whipping her hair around. Being up fifty feet in the air on her broom, Rose really couldn't stop the wind nor could she fix her short hair. Why hadn't she grabbed her hat? Rose looked down and growled. She leaned forward and headed for the ground, pulling up right before having a broken body part.

"You're practicing with me...why?"

James smiled and tousled Rose's hair, which made her even more annoyed, and said, "No one else wants to practice and I haven't played in forever. So, I was sent out here. And you haven't been out here for a while. So what better way than starting off your first practice than going against my great talent?"

"Why does no one else want to practice? Fred said he was going to earlier." Rose flew over to the Quidditch shed they had and grabbed her leather cap with the goggles. She jammed the cap on and moved the goggles over her eyes.

"Well, let's just say he got hit by some nasty cold." James rolled his eyes. Whether it was at their cousin or at her absurd appearance, she didn't know.

"But it's summer…."

James just smiled and produced a quaffle from the shed and he climbed onto his broom. Rose growled and got the strategic, fighting side of her brain thinking of how to clobber James. Now was her chance to get back at him for all the times he'd beaten her. Normally they weren't allowed to use magic because all the Quidditch lovers in the family said it wouldn't be a real practice, but James had never followed those rules. He didn't follow many rules. Grandma always said he was just like his dad.

They both rose high in the air and as they climbed in elevation, James launched the Quaffle with a spell. Rose was the first to grab it, rocketing forward before James even put his arm down. She had her wand out, readying herself for an attack. And sure enough, a jet of light soon came hurtling towards her.

_Protego._

A shield burst out from her wand and she weaved back and forth in a downward slope. Rose started to extend her arm to drop the quaffle in James' basket, but James swooped in and grabbed it, escalating in a spiral. In hot pursuit, Rose flicked her wand and sent a spell directly at the quaffle. It hit, sending the ball out of James' hands. Rose hugged herself to her broom and flew forward, hand outstretched for the quaffle. She dodged James' side tackle and flew towards the house.

Grandma was out in the garden with Lily and Louis, directing them to pull out the gnomes. Rose dived, scattering some of the gnomes, and laughed. She received the infamous glare, but didn't personally see it. James was stopped though, for Grandma had casted a spell right as Rose got behind the house, waiting for James to catch up.

In the shadows of the huge house, Rose lounged on her broom. Up and down, up and down, up and down the quaffle went. Her leg idly kicking, hanging off the side of her broom. After a few minutes of the same motion, James stalked around the corner. His brown eyes narrowed and his face smudged with dirt.

"Thanks to you, I had to help finish de-gnoming the garden. You better start flying as fast as Pig does." James pulled out his wand and climbed onto his broom.

Rose laughed at his simile to her dad's owl. She was already seated properly and kicked off the side of the house, quaffle under her arm. The wind came at full force now. She was going as fast as she could, zooming above the house and then heading towards the makeshift pitch. Some of the younger cousins ran to watch. James was right on Rose's tail within two minutes. Out of her peripherals, Rose kept an eye on him as she tilted forward into a dive. She spiraled around all of the spells and didn't run into the basket as she dunked the quaffle in for a goal. A cheer came from her cousins. For once, the great James was defeated. The tradition with James' scrimmages was whoever got one point first, won the game. That has been put into effect when James kept on winning the full scrimmages, that took forever to finish, every single time due to using magic. James slowed down, a look of astonishment on his face. Rose slipped her left leg over to ride side saddle over to face her cousin. She stuck her right hand out, in a gesture of truce.

"How about it?"

James looked at her hand, scrutinizing it, "Why?"

"Your 'great Quidditch talents', as you called them, have finally been beaten and I think we all need to go back to the good old ways of playing Quidditch, before we were able to use magic. So stop pouting. Truce?"

He heaved a sigh and slapped his right hand in Rose's and shook it, albeit a little reluctantly. Rose smiled.

"All right. Now that I've gotten some practice in…" Rose stretched.

"What? You can't just stop playing now! We can still play a full-length game!"

"I have some things to do, James. Get Fred to play with you."

"But he has a cold!"

"Yet I know you know how to get rid of it." And with that she flew up to her balcony and went into her room.

"Anyone else want to play against the Great James?" Rose heard as she shut her balcony doors.

----

"That was amazing, Rose!" Tori praised, as they entered Diagon Alley with Rose's mum and Aunt Ginny. She had finished re-hashing the glorious tale of how Rose had defeated James for the third time. Aunt Ginny hadn't heard it yet so Rose sighed and gestured to Tori. Rose certainly didn't want to go through it all again.

"I must say that I'm glad it was you, Rosie, that finally beat my son. He was getting a little bit of a big head."

The sun was shining at full force above their heads. It was noon on a Monday, so that meant that while the streets were still busy, the four could walk alongside each other without being broken apart. All the school shopping was done by mail order so that wasn't the reason they were there. Something else was at the forefront of their mind. First, a stop at Gringotts was in order. They rode through the dimly lit tunnels which went by at a blur due to the speed they were traveling. After almost throwing up outside on the marble steps, the four women stopped at a café for lunch and then went onto the shops that catered to their need.

First up was Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. Dress robes were the agenda. Rose's mum and aunt already had their gowns for the event that was coming up in no less than five days. Victoire was only there to help Rose pick out something good. Rose wasn't looking forward to this. She hadn't been since the beginning of the summer. Luckily the first dress they found was the one that looked absolutely beautiful on her and it was kind of cheap.

They checked out of the store and Rose's mum apparated the purchase home then came back. And since they were women, they went shopping some more. They stopped by and visited Uncle George in his shop and they went into Flourish and Blotts, purely for only the enjoyment of Rose and Hermione only. Next, Aunt Ginny decided to go to Quality Quidditch Supplies. As was tradition, Rose glanced in the window to see what their newest item for sale was. This time it was another new Firebolt upgrade. Rose shook her head, wondering what they had added to this one. She noted that she'd have to tell Uncle Harry, but then figured her aunt would have that covered.

But as she looked past, Rose saw a gleam of hair that she didn't want to see. She ducked under the window, letting a swear word that she'd learned from her father come from her lips. Her mum gave a look like she was about to ask where she'd heard that but then grabbed Rose's hand and walked back over to Flourish and Blotts. Aunt Ginny groaned and followed. Rose, looking back, saw Victoire peek in the store to see why Rose had done that, and then she ran after them, her eyes wide.

After finding a secluded corner, her mum turned Rose around and asked, "What was that all about? There's no reason to hide from the clerk of the store. It's not like you've done anything in there before to warrant his dislike, have you?"

"It wasn't the clerk. It was a customer that was in there. And I really don't want to discuss this with you, mum."

"And why not?"

"Oh, gosh, Rose. Just tell her. It's not like their not going to notice your hiding at the ball on Saturday." Victoire blurted out and then covered her mouth as Rose shot her a glare reminiscent of the one from that morning.

"Rose Brielle Weasley, what is Victoire talking about?"

"Let's just say that I'm not thrilled about the prospect of this Saturday. A night of more tension. Bleh."

"Rose…" Her mum shot her a threatening look that said "explain or I will pull it out of you."

Rose's eyes widened as she thought of how her mum could do so, but then remembered that her mum, Hermione Weasley, was the greatest witch of the era. She could do just about anything with a wand. Rose sighed and then launched into an explanation of everything that had happened over the past year, between her and Scorpius. Every single tense moment where he would almost say it, almost kiss her, but always, right as she closed her eyes, he left without a word. Call Rose old fashioned but she didn't want to make the first move. It also had to do with the fact that she didn't want to go through all the teasing she would get. But then she got to the reason she didn't want to go to the ball. She didn't want to have another moment, in front of everyone, and then have him deny his feelings once again.

Her mum and aunt asked why she didn't just talk to him about it. They were in the same house after all. Rose had actually thought about it before. She knew exactly why she never wanted to do that. It would just cause more drama.

"I just can't."

"Well, I know what that's like." Her mum put a hand on Rose's head and then helped her up. " Maybe I'll tell you the story later. But right now, let's just go back to the house. We obviously can't go anywhere near that specific shop. Sorry Gin."

"Oh, it's fine." Aunt Ginny replied.

As they walked towards the Leaky Cauldron so as to grab some butterbeer for the family, Aunt Ginny instantly had an idea.

"Go on home. I'll meet you there."

----

Rose couldn't believe she had forgotten what the theme of Scorpius' birthday party was. And as she stared at her aunt's brilliant idea, she couldn't help but think about how it could all go wrong.

"Not if we do your hair in a style you never do. There are a lot of hair styles that would be very flattering to you. Also, the mask covers the slight smattering of Weasley freckles you have. That dress is definitely different than what you would normally wear, no offense meant, Rosie. He'll have a hard time recognizing you."

"And if we use magic and some potions, we could easily straighten that hair." Her mum said thoughtfully.

"I don't know. My bushy hair is hard to manage, even with magic. And this plan has so many things that could go wrong."

"Rose, will you stop? It's a perfect plan. Especially if you wear heels."  
"I love how we're bashing Roserino's style. Can we mention that her ears are uneven too?" James poked his head in.

"Butt out, Jamesie," Victoire pushed his head out and shut the door. "And don't even think about apparating into this room!"

"Rosie, it'll work. Trust me." Aunt Ginny said. "Just put on the mask and see how different you look."

Rose took the shiny, apple green mask with swirling gold accents and put it on. She turned to the mirror and her mum tried a little something with her hair to show her. With just those two little things, Rose gasped. She was much different. There was just something more elegant about it. And mysterious. Rose liked the element of mystery. She smiled and nodded.

"You're right. I think it just might work."


	4. Author's Note: Edition 2

Author's Note

OH MY GOSH I AM SOO SORRY! I can't believe that it's been a year since I've been on here. I totally got distracted with other things in life and whatnot, and completely forgot about this story. But no worries, I'm gonna start working on it again. Considering that I found all my old documents again as well. I hope that no one just stopped paying attention because I didn't update for forever. Thanks to those that reviewed the last few chapters and I would love any constructive criticism. Mind you if it flames I will not be happy. It is a Fan Fiction by the way so I can do whatever I jolly well want with the story. Now that that rant is out of the way, I hope to update soon. Once again, thanks and I'll see y'all again soon.

EDIT: I am also going to revise the last three chapters as there are things I want to change and make better. Also to add to the chapters to make certain chapters a little longer.


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